1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to a method for automatically recording an episode of a program of interest to a user and, in particular, to methods for setting program timers for use in digital video recorders.
2. Description of the Related Art
Media services offer entertainment, news, sports and other broadcast programming over cable, satellite and Internet streaming links. The number of channels available now numbers in the thousands, reflecting the highly varied interests among different users. The nature of broadcast programming means that certain programs are broadcast during certain scheduled time slots, often known well in advance. These programs are often catalogued for viewer access in electronic programming guides. The viewer can then find a show they desire to watch by navigating the electronic programming guide and selecting an episode of a program to watch. This type of program scheduling does not compensate for individual scheduling conflicts though, and only broadcasts an episode of a program during the scheduled time slot.
As home entertainment technology has advanced, timers were developed that allowed a user to record an episode of a program of interest during a time period in which the user was not able to watch the broadcast. The earliest consumer version of this technology was the Videocassette Recorder (VCR) which allowed a user to set a timer to start the VCR recording after a certain time interval had passed. The VCR would wait the set amount of time, and then begin recording a selected channel of an input stream of programming until a Video Home System (VHS) cassette ran out of space. The VHS cassette would store the media until deleted or overwritten by the user. This meant that an episode recorded while the user was away from the system could be watched at a later time chosen by the user.
The recording timer technology matured with the introduction of the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). The DVR enabled higher level processing to be done to determine when to record an episode of a program based on user instruction. For instance, a user could set a timer for a program they were currently watching, even if they were unaware of the next scheduled showing of an episode of that program. Timers could also be associated with a specific program in a schedule. If the schedule changed and the program was placed in a new time slot, the DVR could modify the timer to capture episodes of the program in its new time slot.
Users do not always set timers for programs they want to record though. Programs that a user is interested in may not have a timer set because the user accidentally forgot to set the timer or unforeseen circumstances prevented the timely setting of the timer. In addition, as the use of timers has increased, it has become increasingly difficult to manage timers such that a user can ensure that every episode of a program they are interested in is recorded when they are unable to watch the original broadcast. Because broadcast programming is only accessible during the scheduled showing time, a missed timer means a missed watching of an episode of a program.